Excel Format Question

How do I format an excel string so that it reads:

41-A-3 for example. If I was to type in 41A3 it would display the hyphens and show up as 41-A-3. For example, when I type in ##-#-# and I type 4918 it shows 49-1-8. But I can't remember how to do a character input. I tried ##-@-# but got nothing.

I think he is looking for a cell formatting solution so that he can type in 41A3 but the cell will display 41-A-3.

Sorry, ZeR0, but my only suggestion would have been ##-@-# as a custom format but apparently that didn't work...

Edit: What if you just formatted it as a text cell with @@-@-@, does that work? If so, you would (probably) lose the ability to put them in numerical order, so it is up to you if the gains are worth the losses.